St. Louis man sentenced in 2015 Brooklyn strip club murder

Tiye Allen, 21 was sentenced Tuesday for the 2015 murder of a man in the parking lot of a Brooklyn strip club.

St. Clair County Circuit Judge Robert Haida gave Allen, of St. Louis, a 60-year prison sentence, of which he will have to serve 100 percent, and three years of mandatory supervised release.

In April, a jury found Allen guilty of first-degree murder in the Dec. 12, 2015, shooting death of Salahudin Malik Robbins, 29, of Berkely, Missouri. Haida decided Allen would serve 35 years for first-degree murder, along with a 25-year sentencing enhancement for the use of a firearm.

St. Clair County Assistant State’s Attorney Amanda Fischer stated in a search warrant that Robbins died in the parking lot of the Bottoms Up Club at 307 Jefferson St. in Brooklyn after being shot multiple times by two men.

Robbins was married and had one son.

Allen and Tony Hampton, 26, of St. Louis, were later identified on video surveillance footage.

“We don’t have to guess what happened,” Fischer said of the shooting during Allen’s sentencing. She said the men were waiting for Robbins to exit the club and described the shooting as an “execution.”

During Allen’s trial, Fischer said prosecutors believed that Hampton and Allen knew Robbins. “The circumstances indicate this was not random,” Fischer said at the time.

Haida said at the sentencing that he did not know whether it would make a difference to learn why the shooting occurred.

Fischer said Allen shot his gun “at least 12 times” and “at least in (Robbins’) leg.” She acknowledged that bullets found in Robbins’ head and neck were not from Allen’s gun.

Defense attorney Kristy Ridings said during the sentencing that Allen never knew his father and that he is the son of a single mother. He lacks an education, having never completed high school, according to Ridings.

Allen’s sentence could have been 45 years to life in prison. The prosecution asked for a 65-year sentence.

Allen and his attorney asked the judge to consider a shorter sentence so that he could spend time with his three young children. Their mother was murdered, Ridings said.

“Hopefully you can give me the low end of the sentence; I can get back to my kids,” Allen said during the sentencing.

Haida said Ridings tried to explain how life circumstances can put people into situations in which criminal conduct occurs. But he didn’t think that was the case for Allen.